The Pacers fall from serious title contender to looking pedestrian as the playoffs near is the topic Kay Adams and I take up in this latest PBT Extra.

No, it is not all about the Danny Granger trade, although that was a blow to the locker room (the Pacers slide started before that). No, it’s not all about Roy Hibbert looking tired, although he does (but it’s more than that). No, it’s not all Paul George, although he has slumped lately from the field.

The problem for the Pacers is it’s a combination of things, not just one simple fix. That makes it more difficult to turn around.

Stupid remark. You’re saying any team that gets out the blocks and has a high winning percentage is going to crap out. Good teams keep right on “peaking” until the end of the playoffs. NBA history is full of examples. The great Bull teams. The great Laker teams. On and on. Your remark is ignorant.

It could start with showing Frank Vogel trying to pump his team up with an inspirational speech. In the background Paul George will be shaking his head at paternity suit papers saying “damn that’s messed up…”. Roy Hibbert can be seen angrily muttering “Got some selfish dudes in here” right after Vogel says “Hibbert you look worn out, get a little inside outside action instead of turning and shooting everytime, you haven’t been making them”. David West will be doing bicep curls in the background with headphones on completely oblivious to everything else. We could add more mini scenes.

If, and it’s a big if… The pacers reach the ECF…. They are done in 4 or 5. And although the Heat are nothing but flopping, whining, never commited any fouls and were fouled on every shot they ever missed types…. They’ll handle Indy with ease.

The winner of the Raptors/Wizards series can beat this team in 7. If they dont snap out of the funk they are in Both of those teams will be able to run this Pacers team off the floor. They better wake up soon or else they gonna be going on vacation early May.

I’m not jumping ship. Concerned, heck yeah. We’ll see how things progress, but certainly Indy’s chances do not look nearly as good as they did early.

tashab03 - Apr 8, 2014 at 7:24 PM

I agree. It’s a shame. I’ve been a Pacer fan my entire life. Love them through the good and the bad. It’s sad to see them so going through this slump, but I think they’ll turn it around come playoffs. If not, Vogel better get out the resumes.

You can call the Heat anything you want (including back-to-back champions). But guess what, they handle their business. Your Indy team has been biting at their ankles yelling: “LOOK HOW CLOSE WE CAME…WE ALMOST BEAT THE HEAT!!!” Almost only counts in horse shoes and hand grenades cuz the Pacers haven’t won anything. Hell, they’ve never won anything in the NBA (their only titles came as part of the ABA) and yet they were yelling from the mountain tops about how great they were, and how this was their year. More like it was their “first-half-of-the-season”. The entire Pacers team came out WAY too sure of themselves at the start of the season – this is what I call karma.

As of right now the raptors are the second best team in the conference. That bench is ridiculous, every game they add to leads the starters have given them. I think Toronto, Brooklyn, and Chicago could beat Indy and quickly

You could make a case, probably even very strong case, that the Nets are legitimate threat for the East. They’ve been playing really, really well for a while now. I’m not ruling out the Pacers like a lot of people are so far but they do need to right the ship and fast.

Landing the 3 seed in the East is looking to be absolutely huge…it means avoiding the 4 and 5 seed in the first round, and then likely facing Indiana in the second round rather than Miami.
Both the Raptors and Bulls have fairly easy schedules remaining.

Who owns the tiebreaker between those two teams?

philtration - Apr 7, 2014 at 10:41 PM

If the season ended today the Raptors would win the tiebreaker due to them winning their division.

PBTeebers are going too far in the other direction now. Yes, the Pacers currently stink – but the playoffs are a new season that naturally rejuvenates via fresh motivation and urgency amidst more clearly defined goals. People say they wouldn’t be surprised if the Pacers didn’t make the ECF… totally fine… but at the same time no one is going to be surprised if they did end up in the ECF.

But most people react to events without thinking everything through. They’re failing to appreciate that the 2nd season is a place where experience matters – you have to learn to win under that pressure and it’s a completely different thing than playing in the regular season. And here we have amateur observers talking about the Raptors beating the Pacers in the playoffs – and not just beating them, but doing it “quickly.” Now to an objective, experienced observer that is just a ridiculous notion. It’s not impossible, but it’s highly unlikely.

gofinsgoheatfloria - Apr 7, 2014 at 6:19 PM

Pop and Spo have both said that one of the two keys to the post-season is to be playing well. To “currently stink” with four games left is not what I think they had in mind. The Pacers can turn it around, but time is getting short.

That’s simplistic. And everybody parrots that, not just Pop and Spo. Ideally you would like to be playing well to close the season, obviously – but it’s not absolutely necessary. And realize that this is also serves as generic motivational coach-speak.

I think we can all recall when the Celtics stumbled into the playoffs in 2010 with a 50-32 record – being booed at home in the final games of the season – then ending up in the NBA finals. And I think we can all recall two seasons later when the Spurs ended the season exceptionally well, only to get bounced by losing 4 straight games in the playoffs.

As those cases indicate, there are more than just two factors to consider. This year in the East that is especially the case because the teams below Indiana and Miami either have no playoff experience at all, or no playoff experience together, or lacking elite talent, or lacking their best talent (Bulls). What wins in the playoffs is experience + talent – and those two things are going to override everything else, including Pop’s and Spo’s two keys.

gostlcards5 - Apr 8, 2014 at 3:25 PM

Well said, anti, and the Pacers last year are another good example. Didn’t they lose 4 of 5 or 5 of 6 going into the playoffs last year? I do agree that there is very legitimate cause for concern, but everyone is prone to overreacting to everything these days.

It boils down to what their problem was when everyone was jocking them as the sheik pick, they don’t cscore enough just like those Bulls teams that were regular season demons, too. Defense needs to be very good, but offense needs to be dynamic and you need to have more than one go to scorer to win a championship. The Pacers have half of one in
George at his best. I think we have ample evidence of this, why everyone thought this sorry team was going to break that rule is beyond me.

The scary thing about the Pacer losses is they are getting beat bad and by some teams that are not going anywhere. I can’t remember a good experienced team like this folding so late in the season for no apparent reason.

There is a difference between jumping ship and being realistic. I’ll support the Pacers all the way, but they’re not ready for the biggest stage. Too bad they play in non-glamorous Indianapolis and can’t draw HOF players (I.E. Shaq, Lebron) to come lift them to championships.